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Bruce Banner
"My name is Bruce Banner. For a long time I lived with a terrible secret. That deep inside me there was a monster waiting to get out. THE HULK. It wasn't long before the world discovered my secret. And since then I've been on the run. Unable to have friends. Family. Any semblance of life." Character Stat Sheet Public Information Bruce Banner is a quiet physicist who had made a name for himself as the world's foremost expert on gamma radiation, which caught the attention of the United States military. While his work with them is secret, it is known that he no longer works there, but continues to publish work on gamma radiation and related topics. The Hulk is a mean, green machine that is known for smashing whatever he deems that needs to be smashed. He destroyed a large portion of New York City, but has officially been pardoned and is a founding member of the Avengers. Background Bruce was born in 1969 to Brian and Rebecca Banner. Rebecca was a loving mother who loved her son more than anything in the world. Dr. Brian Banner, on the other hand, was a physicist who feared that his own DNA had been altered by his research and that his son, who was receiving more love than him from his wife, was a filthy mutant. Due to this jealousy, anger issues, alcoholism, and a lack of success at his work, would regularly abuse his wife and son, physically and verbally. It was during this time that Bruce began to develop an imaginary friend called the Hulk to cope with his own anger and frustration at the situation. Eventually Brian murdered Rebecca and was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Bruce was sent to live with his paternal aunt Susan. Susan raised Bruce and gave him the support he needed, ensuring that the boy would do well at school, at least academically. The child prodigy was able to advance two grades ahead of his peers, though he socially did not fit in with them, being bullied due to his small size, being withdrawn, and being so academically focused. He finished high school at 16, his aunt would not let him graduate sooner due to the fact that he would need to drive himself and fend for himself at college. Banner's academic career was as stellar as one would expect for the young prodigy, first attending Desert State University under Doctor Weller, where he finished his bachelor's. He then studied at Pennsylvania State University and finished his first doctorate, in nuclear physics with a focus on gamma radiation, at the California Institute of Technology. In the first couple of years after he got his doctorate, Banner tried to acquire funding for peaceful causes involving gamma radiation, but he eventually had to accept a government contract working in research and development under General Thaddeus Ross. His assignment was to develop a gamma bomb. During the course of his research he encountered the general's daughter, Betty. The two had a budding romance until tragedy struck. In 1997, during a test of one of the bombs, a drunk Rick Jones was spotted in the blast radius and Banner called for the countdown to stop. After Banner left to go guide the student off of the test site, a colleague Igor Drenkov did not relay his instructions to stop the countdown. Banner was able to shield the student from the blast, absorbing almost all of the radiation. When Banner awoke in the secure medical facilities on the base, people were shocked to find him alive, but after being released he occasionally would turn into the Hulk, a green raging monster that had taken on the identity of Banner's childhood imaginary friend. Banner had no control over the adrenaline that would cause the Hulk to show up, or control the Hulk, at least at first. For a little while, Banner moved back in with his aunt, who had married a local sheriff. While there his cousin Jennifer Walters was shot and needed a blood transfusion. Banner was the nearest source of compatible blood available and inadvertently passed on his powers to his little cousin. After a few years of living on the run, Banner viewed the Hulk as an affliction that must be removed. The prodigy was even able to get a placement as a PhD candidate at Harvard to study biochemistry, focusing on radiation's impact on cells and discovered that his own DNA did have a mutation passed down from his father, when combined with the massive dose of gamma radiation received in the blast, it triggered the gene, resulting in enhanced physical abilities and near indestructability when adrenaline was increased. Banner would finish his second doctorate and resumed trying to fix this problem, at first trying to inhibit the adrenaline naturally, which he could not do reliably. Instead he began studying meditation techniques that would allow him to help control his emotions. Eventually, Banner and the 'Other Guy' came to become a begrudging duo, Banner still loathing the fact that the Hulk was part of him, but realizing that it could be used for good. The scientist eventually found a way to exert control of the Hulk's mind, well Banner's mind, when transformed and even have enough control to help determine when he would 'Hulk out'. With this control in mind, he was able to begin finding grants and publishing research, even landing a tenure-track position at Empire State University. This brief moment of peace was ruined when the Leader unleashed villains using gamma radiation. Banner was approached by the X-Men and Hank Pym to help with the crisis as the world's foremost expert on the topic, and then with quick research realized he had another asset to bring to the table. Banner accepted begrudgingly to help and made a name for himself as they defeated the gamma minions. Banner regained control of himself and returned to academia, left alone for less than a year until Loki was able to exert enough control over him via magic to send him after Thor. With Janet van Dyne, Tony Stark, and Hank Pym, Thor was able to break the enchantment on the raging beast and they all united to help defeat Loki and send him back to Asgard. Banner is pardoned for the damage caused to the city. It was after this incident that the group of them decided to found the Avengers. Again, happiness is present in Banner's life when he is approached by a woman he had not seen in years, Betty. She had taken him for dead after the incident on the base. The two began dating again when the Maggia try to cause problems in New York City. During the fight, Banner nearly loses control of himself and decides to leave the Avengers for his own safety and the safety of others. During this time of simply being Banner, he became engaged to, and married, Betty, resolving to control the Hulk and to not let him out unless it was a dire circumstance. The two live relatively happily together until Banner is brought into a fight against AIM, the Abomination, and his father-in-law, Thaddeus Ross, now the Red Hulk. He fought alongside both teams of Avengers in the fight, though the two teams refuse to arrest him afterwards. His marriage was strained after this fight, having taken control of the Hulk and fighting his father-in-law. Taking time again to help deal with his family and career, Banner goes back into being an obscure scientist for the university until after the Merge he finds that his skills would be put to better use helping humanity directly, post-Merge, Banner takes a position at Stark Industries, and rejoining the reformed Avengers. Personality Bruce Banner is a very mild mannered individual, not known for being one to go off the handles. He can be very polite and kind to others, but is also capable of being ruthless and deceitful if he needs to be. Banner is very withdrawn and can be difficult to get him to come out of his shell. He loves learning and projects related to his fields of physics and biochemistry. The Hulk likes smashing things. He is anger personified. In recent years, Banner has been able to rein in the pure anger of the beast and exert control over the Hulk's mind, though this gets more difficult the angrier the Hulk gets. hulkandfrank.jpg| Franklin meets the Hulk Gallery Logs Category:Marvel Features Category:Altered Humans Category:Taken Characters Category:Avengers Category:Elite Characters Category:Genius Level Intellect Category:Arrested or Slowed Aging Category:Iron Will Category:Shared Souls Category:Super Scientist Category:Regenerative Healing Category:Self-Sustaining